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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27180220">not quite palmistry</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/beelzebubble_tea/pseuds/beelzebubble_tea'>beelzebubble_tea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Autumn, Established Relationship, F/M, Festivals, Fluff, Fortune Telling, Worldbuilding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:49:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,190</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27180220</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/beelzebubble_tea/pseuds/beelzebubble_tea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Gai gets together to enjoy Konoha's autumn festival, but Tenten isn't there. What could she be up to?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hyuuga Neji/Tenten</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Trick or Treat Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>not quite palmistry</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/elegantstupidity/gifts">elegantstupidity</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>With these all-seeing eyes, autumn heralded a discovery of a thousand new shades of crimson, vermillion, scarlet and maroon, wine red and butter yellow, burgundy and carmine, ruby and rust. There were thousands more, brilliantly unique but yet unnamed. Neji saw each and every one. Each of the millions of leaves clinging to branches and fluttering through the air and drifting to the ground and sticking to sandal bottoms was as clear to him as the scrolls on his wall.</p><p>Amongst the vibrant leaves, there were carts selling sweet potatoes and chestnuts, countless fruit stands hawking apples and persimmons and fresh pears, dozens of stalls drawing in customers with the scent of grilling sanma… Children eagerly spent their pocket money on mochi and dango and chestnut dorayaki, just barely saving enough to try their hands at scooping up goldfish or throwing wooden kunai. The ninja in the streets were dolled up in traditional garb and for once, doing a half-decent job of blending in with the civilians. Laughter and chatter filled the air.</p><p>The autumn harvest festival had begun.</p><p>Neji encountered Gai-sensei and Lee outside the gates of the Hyuuga compound. Gai-sensei was clad in a yukata his signature shade of green, while Lee had surprisingly broken character and was wearing a bright yellow and orange yukata that nevertheless matched his cheerful air.</p><p>“Neji!” the two cried excitedly as they saw him draw near. Lee bounced in place as Neji joined them.</p><p>“Lee, Gai-sensei,” Neji greeted.</p><p>Lee struck a pose. “My treasured teammate, what do you think of my yukata?”</p><p>Neji looked him up and down. “You look presentable, for once.”</p><p>“Thank you, Neji!” Lee struck a different pose.</p><p>“Yes, it makes you look a hundred times more youthful!” Gai declared, clapping Lee on the shoulder.</p><p>“How kind of you, Gai-sensei!”</p><p>“Lee!”</p><p>“Gai-sensei!”</p><p>Neji sighed at the sparkling spectacle. “Where <i>is</i> Tenten? Is she not with you?” He’d expected her to accompany him to the festival, as seemed to be the done thing among their generation.</p><p>“No, we haven’t seen her today.” Lee didn’t so much as droop when he said this, which Neji took as a sign that something was afoot. He waited for Lee to elaborate, but Lee just sparkled innocently at him.</p><p>Finally, Gai-sensei took pity on Neji. “No need to worry, my dear student. I’m sure young Tenten is enjoying the festival in her own way! Come, let’s hurry before it’s too late.”</p><p>Lee and Gai-sensei herded Neji down the road, talking exuberantly over his attempts to inquire after Tenten’s whereabouts. When they reached the edge of the festivities, Neji gave up and hoped that whatever they were hiding wasn’t going to be too troublesome. (Was he starting to sound like Shikamaru?)</p><p>“Sakura, Naruto! Sasuke!” Lee bounded off into the stream of people, yukata fluttering. Team 7, including Kakashi wearing a festive orange mask, waved at Lee from where they were buying roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. The two teams (still sans Tenten) merged, chattering, and wandered through the festival together, sampling various fresh snacks and trying their hands at the few games set up for ninja.</p><p>An hour passed, and Neji still had not caught sight of Tenten anywhere. This wasn’t strange, as the festivities sprawled over dozens of Konoha’s streets, and Neji hadn’t used his doujutsu to search for her. What <i>was</i> strange was that Tenten wasn’t with them in the first place. Where was she? Just as he was about to ask Gai-sensei again, instinct made him duck and spin around, Byakugan activating. A flurry of shuriken bit the dirt by his feet.</p><p>“What…” Neji looked at the girl who’d thrown the shuriken, which he now saw were sparkly and dull-tipped. The girl darted around his legs, peering at the fallen shuriken and muttering. She wore a colorful festival mask decorated with tassels and crudely painted weapons, but Neji was more focused on the face underneath. “Tenten…?”</p><p>“Oh come on, you’re no fun!” Tenten complained. She scowled playfully up at him from where she was crouched amongst the scattering of shuriken. “Whatever. Want to hear your fortune?”</p><p>“My fortune,” Neji repeated flatly. “Is that what this was for?”</p><p>“Yep!” Alas, Tenten was too inured to his disapproval. She plucked one of the shuriken out of the dirt and sprang to her feet, holding up in the air. Goldening sunlight danced across the cheap metal as she turned it about. “See how this is weighted lopsidedly? You couldn’t hit a tree from ten meters away—well I could, but you know—anyways, they’re great for fortune-telling. You just toss them at the subject, and the shape and flow of their aura influence the way they fall.”</p><p>“You mean chakra.”</p><p>“<i>Aura</i>.” The shuriken disappeared into her weapons pouch, which was also decorated with tassels for the occasion. Tenten picked up another shuriken from the ground. A scorpion was carved curling around the hold in the middle. “See, the scorpion landed on the water arm, so you’re going to find yourself in a strange environment.”</p><p>Neji raised a brow. Behind him, Gai-sensei and Kakashi were having a dango-eating contest. “What happened to palm-reading?”</p><p>Tenten shrugged. “Not my style.” She selected another fallen shuriken, this one with a snake carving. “Yikes, the snake landed on fire—a treasure of yours is going to be destroyed or lost.”</p><p>“Unfortunate,” Neji said dryly. It was possible to predict the future of course, albeit with vague and nigh-indecipherable results—there was a monastery in Lightning Country that consistently made accurate predictions—but he didn’t think throwing poorly made faux shuriken was the way to do so. “And that one?”</p><p>“The koi?” Breaking into a grin, Tenten picked it up. “It landed on water. You’ll find happiness and fulfillment in the future.”</p><p>“No,” Neji said.</p><p>“No?” Tenten easily scooped up the dozen shuriken still on the ground, then poked Neji’s cheek. “Why not, huh?”</p><p>Neji caught her hand as she was coming in for another poke and pulled her towards him, tugging off her mask. The veins around his eyes disappeared. “Because I am already happy.”</p><p>Tenten stared. A strand of hair was plastered to her pinkening cheek. “That was so—”</p><p>He cut her off with a kiss. Tenten licked her lips as they separated, humming thoughtfully. “Tastes like chestnuts.”</p><p>“I had some earlier.” Neji inclined his head towards her red and yellow mask. “Were you expecting to surprise me?”</p><p>She let out an dramatic sigh. “Well, maybe. I should’ve known you’d activate your Byakugan.”</p><p>“You threw shuriken at me,” Neji pointed out.</p><p>“They’re not sharp at all, and they’re even covered in sparkles!” Tenten argued.</p><p>“As you say,” Neji said. His lip quirked up, belying his good humor.</p><p>Tenten huffed and began dragging him down the street towards the others, Neji quickening his stride to catch up. “You want to know the rest of your fortune? Well, it says that you’re going to buy me some roasted chestnuts, and then we’re going to wander around and spend an A-rank pay’s worth of money on carnival games.”</p><p>Neji snorted. “Would you like to try your luck at the shuriken toss?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Happy Halloween!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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